WARREN Youngstown woman admits sexual contact with baby boy

By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- An 18-year-old Youngstown woman has admitted to having sexual contact with a 1-year-old boy.
Nicole Harris of Thalia Avenue pleaded guilty to a rape charge Wednesday in the courtroom of Judge John Stuard of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
City police said Harris had oral sex with the boy in a city home in November.
Harris had been facing three counts of rape but Atty. Thomas Wrenn, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, agreed to drop two of the charges in exchange for her guilty plea.
Wrenn said Harris could face up to 10 years in prison. She will be sentenced after a background check by the county adult probation department.
"I'm going to argue for probation because she is mentally challenged," said her legal counsel, Atty. Anthony Consoldane of the public defender's commission.
Psychological report
He noted that a report completed by Stanley J. Palumbo, a psychologist with the Forensic Psychiatric Center of Northeast Ohio, in Youngstown, stated that Harris' IQ is 65, which is in the mild mental retardation range.
"She did this on a dare. Others dared her," Consoldane said. He refused to say who dared Harris. No one else has been charged in the rape.
"Here's an 18-year-old convicted of a first-degree felony. This is going to mess up the rest of her life and it just doesn't seem that justice was served," Consoldane said.
Detective Jeff Cole of the city police department said Harris was baby-sitting the baby. Police said they were told that Harris had sexual contact with the baby on several occasions.
Harris was arrested on the charges Nov. 27.
Cole said Harris was staying at the Belmont N.W. home with the baby and his mother for a few weeks.
Harris dropped out of high school in the 10th grade, he added.
sinkovich@vindy.com